re. Subject: [CPProt.net] Marion True, Shelby White, and 'rigorous'
Dorothy King (lists)
dorothy.lists at gmail.com
Sun Nov 27 11:56:29 CET 2005
Subject: [CPProt.net] Marion True, Shelby White, and 'rigorous'
due-diligence, and WHO OWNS THE PAST...
Dear Ton,
I have read "Who Owns the Past ?" and I am currently reviewing it. We must have different books. The book I have is:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0813536871/104-3510546-0740702?v=glance&n=283155&n=507846&s=books&v=glance
I am not sure why you are so vile about Prof. Merryman, simply because he is on the other side; his arguments are far better thought out that many of those on 'your' side. He has been publishing well researched, rather brilliant articles for years, and given the subject far more thought than many others with their knee-jerk reactions. His opponents' arguments can be summed up as "I say it's illegal, so it is".
Mrs. White and her late husband did and do a great deal of good in archaeology. How can you be anti private collectors, and simultaneously criticise them for funding public museums, where art is accessible to all ? There seems to be an innate contradiction in your arguments.
Mrs White has behind many academic publications and research. Ashkelon was excavated with her help, but since the artefacts found there are in Israeli museums not her living room, I assume that's not worth mentioning.
You forgot to mention the UNESCO incident from the book.
This is where the official, legal, non-looting director of Kabul Museum was trying to save the contents of the museum from the Taliban. They were willing to let him send the contents of the museum abroad - and so save them - but wanted UNESCO to paint the "UN" on the sides of the boxes. UNESCO repeatedly refused to help, because they would rather see cultural heritage destroyed than let it leave "its country of origin". The original story is longer, and far more damning - anyone reading it is likely to question the validity of UNESCO.
I'd like to be able to claim that that was the only time they allowed art and/or cultural heritage to be destroyed rather than leave its country of origin, but unfortunately I had an almost identical experience with them in another country.
If anyone else has had similar problems with UNESCO, I would love to hear from them - dorothy.lists at gmail.com
re. Due Diligence.
I realise that from an ivory tower 'due diligence' sounds like a wonderful idea, and so very easy. I wish it were.
Someone asked me to look at a Kore in an auction. This particular type tends to come in sets of six, I have seen the various examples around the world, and published and lectured extensively on the type. The sets all differ in their execution, and are therefore quite recognisable. The details of the carving should have been enough to identify it, if it was a missing figure from a partial set we know. In theory I know every example anywhere in the world, and I am one of the best people alive to undertake this 'due diligence'.
I emailed photos of the statue to everyone I knew who had excavated similar figures.
No answer.
I emailed photos of the statue to everyone I knew who had similar figures in their museums or store.
No answer.
I emailed photos of the statue to a colleague in the Greek Archaeological Service.
No answer.
I made repeated efforts to ring the Italian Cultural Attaché, and someone at the Ministry of Culture, leaving message.
No-one bothered to ring back.
I know many people who work on this type of Kore, and many people in archaeology, but I couldn't get an answer out of them. I told the auction house that no-one was objecting to the sale. If I cannot perform "due diligence" on a figure type I know so well, I do not understand how anyone else can possibly do so.
I realise that we are on different sides of the Elgin Marbles debate, but as I have always told you, I don't care what people think, as long as they bother to think. Like many 'liberals' you don't seem to care if people think, only that they think the same thing as you. Thank you for your many emails with critiques of my views on the Elgin debate. If you or anyone else finds a mistake then I will be delighted to correct it in a subsequent edition, but beating me over the head with the same "you're wrong" 'argument' gets a little tiresome.
Your list is a wonderful idea. But if you write such clearly silly pieces, all pretence the objectivity you claim is gone.
Yours sincerely,
Dorothy King
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Today's Topics:
1. Italy and the Met (Italian version of this week's meeting
betweenDe Montebello and Buttiglioni, and the result of the
meeting) (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers))
2. Rich Art-Lovers Shocked By Russian Art Forgery
(MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers))
3. Insider theft: A treaty and a theft. The case of Napoleon's
1814 treaty (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers))
4. 'Little jewels' returned to Argentina (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers))
5. Mussa Calls for Protecting Arab Antiquities
(MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers))
6. Marion True, Shelby White, and 'rigorous' due-diligence, and
WHO OWNS THE PAST... (MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers))
7. Italy-Getty: Pr?cticas dolosas, usos fraudulentos
(MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers))
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 6
Date: Sun, 27 Nov 2005 07:46:13 +0100
From: "MSN CPPnet \(Ton Cremers\)"
<museum-security at museum-security.org>
Subject: [CPProt.net] Marion True, Shelby White, and 'rigorous'
due-diligence, and WHO OWNS THE PAST...
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Cc: 'Leiden Network List' <list at leidennetwork.net>
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Marion True, Shelby White, and 'rigorous' due-diligence, and WHO OWNS THE PAST...
Ton Cremers, November 27, 2005
Just recently the Rutgers University Press published WHO OWNS THE PAST, Cultural policy, Cultural Property, and the law. Edited by Kate Fitz Gibbon.
One of the text contributions is by Shelby White. In the perspective of the present Italian litigation against Marion True and Robert Hecht this book constitutes very interesting reading.
Miss White's text is called: Building American Museums, the Role of the Private Collector. Just one quote from that report (p. 168):
"At Getty's death, the museum was made the primary beneficiary of his vast fortune. The two curators who have supervised the collections since Getty's death have added greatly to the museum's holdings, and expanded the range of materials within the collections. Under its current curator, Dr. Marion True, the Getty has collected Greek vases of exceptional quality, sculptures, terra-cottas, bronzes, and a remarkable cult statue from the end of the fifth century BCE. In 1996, the museum acquired 300 Greek, Roman, and Etruscan antiquities from the magnificent collection assembled by Lawrence and Barbara Fleischman" (end of quote)
Yes, the Fleischmans who, a few months after this acquisition gave Dr. Marion True a $ 400,000,00 loan, as was recently revealed.
Another interesting quote from the same book is a footnote that goes with the text contribution by John Henry Merryman: A LICIT INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN CULTURAL OBJECTS.
Note 11 reads:
"In 1987 Dr. Marion true, then curator of antiquities at the Getty Museum, worked with Getty Legal council to establish a rigorous due-diligence procedure that was adopted by the Getty board of trustees. If Dr. True recognized an object offered to her to have been stolen or suspected that it might have been, she informed the authorities of the nation concerned. When offered something that might interest the museum but that was not fully documented, the museum would send a dossier of information and photographs to the antiquities authorities of all plausible nations of origin and, if there were any objection, would decline to acquire it. At a private international conference held at the museum in 1989, archaeologists attacked the Getty procedure as disingenuous. They insisted that an antiquity that was not fully and properly documented be treated as illicit. Eventually the museum, for institutional reasons, adopted that position, and a number of other museums in Europe and the United States followed suit" (end of quote).
Well, if Dr. Marion True is found guilty of all present charges she really cannot use the excuse that she did not know how to perform due-diligence.
It makes one sick that people like Merrymann, and his sarcastic article, and Shelby White with her dubious background as a collector were invited to contribute to this book. White's â,¬ 20,000,000,00 donation to the MET got her a long way, even to the board of the Met and to the president's Illicit Antiquities Advisory Committee.
Shelby White on the board of the MET and Miss Fleischmann on the board of The Getty. It seems that no questions are being asked when plenty of money is at hand.
Read below some excerpts from reports about the White couple that were published the past few years.
In my view it is about time the Italians start to interview Shelby White as well.
More about Shelby White:
Google: search Shelby White: http://snipurl.com/k9d0
- New York Times, November 25, 2005: "Certainly, among the works mentioned in the case against Ms. True, there are 12 objects from among over 300 masterworks of Greek, Roman and Etruscan art collected by Lawrence and Barbara Fleischman and bought by the Getty in 1996. Similarly, some antiquities of concern to the Italian authorities belong to the Levy-White collection, which has other pieces on loan to the Met. Shelby White, the widow of Leon Levy, is a Met trustee."
- "Collector Joins Watchdog Panel on Antiquities
By WILLIAM H. HONAN
The White House has touched off a furor in the rarified world of archaeology by announcing the appointment of Shelby White, a wealthy New York collector of antiquities, to a seat on a government committee formed to help combat illicit international trade in such objects.
Ms. White, who was named to the panel last week, is known to many archaeologists as the wife of the financier Leon Levy, who shares her passion for antiquities and is an avid collector himself.
The couple, owners of one of world's finest private collections of classical artifacts, have a reputation for generosity in sponsoring archaeological fieldwork, research and publication. But as collectors they have frequently stirred anger among archaeologists."
Read full report: http://www.museum-security.org/00/136.html
- April 2005
"The market gives objects value,â? contends noted New York collector Shelby White. â?oLike we saw at Bamiyan, source countries often destroy temples for political or religious reasons. Other times, they simply use ancient columns and pillars for new construction. Then you have cases where common people who find antiquities often melt them down for the gold, or simply throw them away. They donâ?Tt care about the craftsmanship or beauty of the object."
Read full report: http://www.reason.com/0504/fe.sv.ancient.shtml
- New York Times, August 2, 2003:
"One Afghan object in the show is a silver box decorated with lions, bulls and wolves that was lent to the Met in 1999 by Shelby White, a collector and a museum board member. In a 1998 article, she recalled how a dealer showed her and her husband the box in 1990. It was badly damaged and corroded, she said. That could suggest recent excavation.
"Just imagine what would have happened if all finds from
this country had remained in local museums," wrote Ms. White, whose collection has drawn scrutiny in the debate over items of unknown provenance. "Many objects in the Kabul museum are thought to be destroyed, victims of the relentless war that has been waged there. Our silver box may, in fact, have been sold by insurgents who needed money to fight the invading Russians."
- August 2000
"Then why has President Clinton nominated Shelby White to the government's Cultural Property Advisory Committee, whose mission it is to keep plundered archaeological objects from entering the country? Ms. White and her mega rich hubby Leon Levy have one of the largest collections of illicit excavated Greek and Roman antiquities in the country. Simply referred to by Pharisees Levy/White as 'uncontrolled excavations'.
They are well known for being too willing to acquire objects with a dubious provenance or ownership history, one reason the Archaeological Institute of America opposed Ms. White's appointment. In 1991 Ms. White and Mr. Levy agreed to will 16 bronzes to the British Museum, after being sued by an English couple claiming they had been stolen from their farm, the protected site of an ancient Roman settlement.
Anyone serving on an oversight panel should be above suspicion. Like, well, Caesar's wife."
Read more: http://www.michelvanrijn.nl/artnews/artnws10.htm
Ton Cremers
Rotterdam
November 27, 2005
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